Zoysia For Roadsides and Median Strips

Zoysia – The Great Choice For Low & Medium Use Government Areas

This Zoysia article is directed once again at government, and specifically at the good people responsible for managing our roads and their accompanying nature strips, median strips, verges, roundabouts and every other area where they are responsible for planting and maintaining lawns and other plants.

Our suggestion is to start using Zoysia grass, if it’s suitable for the given area, and your given region.

The Problems of Couch and Kikuyu On Roadsides

Common Kikuyu on Roadsides

Common Kikuyu grows vigorously, it is prone to easily spreading to surrounding lawns through its fine seeds, it’s prone to weeds like most grasses, requires regular maintenance, including more water, and more lawn mowing than Zoysia.

Couch is cheap to plant, grows almost anywhere, needs less mowing than Kikuyu, will not invade surrounding lawns like Kikuyu, and will not grow as tall as Kikuyu. However Couch still needs lots of water and fertiliser, and is prone to weeds and diseases when compared to Zoysia.

 

Zoysia For Areas Requiring Little Maintenance

Low maintenance area with Compadre
Darwin – photo credit: Compadre Zoysia

For areas which require a lawn to be maintained to minimum standards, such as turfed areas which are designed for aesthetic values only, and will not be used by the general public – eg median strips and roundabouts… Zoysia is easily a great choice of turf.

For these areas, watering, fertilising and mowing costs can all be heavily reduced by using Zoysia instead of Couch or Kikuyu. The uses of weed killers for weed control and which are normally used to control the spread of grasses in public areas can also be greatly reduced.

Low maintenance area with Empire
Sydney – photo credit: Empire Zoysia

In just these areas alone, the cost savings from maintenance and the environmental benefits from the reduction in use of water, fertiliser and chemicals, as well as the reduction of operating mowing equipment and the savings from reduction in staff costs to maintain these areas, makes Zoysia the best lawn choice for many of these areas.

Zoysia Can Be Abused and Still Perform

Many public grassed areas such as roadsides will not need to be kept as lawns for aesthetic or public use, and Councils and other Works Departments who want the lowest maintenance grass possible for these situations, may also benefit from Zoysia.

no maintenance area with Empire
Sydney – photo credit: Empire Zoysia

Through many departmental trials already conducted in different parts of the country, Zoysia is proving that it can be left without the need of additional water, without the need to apply any fertilisers, without needing weed killers, and without needing to be kept under control, and will rarely invade into areas where it’s not wanted. And it’s in these environments that Zoysia can get away with being mowed once or twice a year, or even a little more often. While not all regions or public areas will gain these exact same results, using Zoysia will reduce costs.

Zoysia for Ovals and Public Recreation Areas

We’ve covered this topic in another article already, so we won’t go into all the specifics again but while we are speaking to government and works departments, we must make mention of it again.

It is our strong opinion that many areas which are maintained by governments in Australia with Couch and Kikuyu could benefit from switching to Zoysia grass, and if this is not suitable – then a Male Sterile Kikuyu may be a better option over the standard common Kikuyu which has been used in the past.

The use of Zoysia can reduce maintenance costs, and reduce water and pesticide and fertiliser usages. Zoysia is a great lawn for reduced maintenance for many different public areas around Australia.

We understand that Zoysia is not going to be perfect for every region, or for every situation where there is public planting of grass lawns. The purpose with this article is simply to bring Zoysia to more attention of those responsible for planting and maintaining these turfed areas – that they may also look at Zoysia grass as an option… to begin trialling this grass, and to replace some public turfed areas where Zoysia would be an appropriate lawn choice.